卦Trigram 2.0

My MBA classmate from Tsinghua, Muskie, sent me an email to tell me that I must blog about the MacBook Air. Well, OK, but… meh. I’m left pretty cold, to be honest. OK, it’s thin… very thin… but too many places where I work have either no wifi or an unreliable connection – I need an ethernet socket! I also still use my optical drive a lot to watch my movies, and I’m not going to start downloading them all again; neither am I going to start carrying around an external drive. Plus – only one USB port???

So: it’s not for me. Some of the tech it uses is cool, though, especially the multitouch. It’s worth reading Bob Cringely’s take on what the Macbook Air is all about, really.

I was more interested in the updates for the iPod Touch, which is now taking its first steps towards being what I would like it to be. This also turned out to be a letdown, though. Like many others, I am rather resistant to paying for what I can’t help thinking ought to be either a free upgrade, or cheaper. As for the new features:

1.  Customisable screen. Bleh. So what?
2. Mail. Bleh. I use webmail pretty much exclusively. Maybe this is useful as a way to get PDF files, etc, onto the iPod – but I would much rather have the iPod visible as an external filestore.
3. Maps. Aah, now you’re talking! This is useful – or would be, if I wasn’t about to leave for Beijing, which isn’t covered by Google Maps…
4. Weather. Useful… but not really a must-have. I can very easily check online before I go out.
5. Notes. Useful. But… I almost always have a pen and notebook with me, and frankly that’s easier than trying to use the iPod’s keyboard.
6. Stocks. Meh. Maybe this will be useful next year, but I don’t need it right now.

So, overall…. nope, not excited. Sorry, Muskie!